Archive for the 'Gary Bettman' Tag Under 'Ducks' Category

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, in a rare display of remorse and contrition, apologized on Wednesday for the lengthy lockout that delayed the start of the regular season as he announced that owners unanimously ratified the new labor agreement.

Bettman made the announcement at a news conference in New York after representatives from all 30 teams at the NHL's Board of Governors meeting approved the 10-year deal, which was tentatively reached between the league and the players' union early Sunday morning.

Ratification from the NHL Players' Association won't come until Saturday after the 700-plus members of the union vote on it. Training camps across the league are expected to open Sunday once the new agreement becomes official.

The focus is turning toward a 48-game season that is expected to start Jan. 19, though Bettman said the schedule won't be released until the NHLPA signs off on the deal.

But the NHL's top executive, who has now presided over three prolonged work stoppages, appealed to fans angered and alienated over another labor fight by saying, “I'm sorry.”

Is it time for hockey fans to nominate federal mediator Scot Beckenbaugh for sainthood?

It might be a bit rash to canonize the Illinois native but Beckenbaugh has at least accomplished the small miracle of getting the two sides in the NHL's ongoing labor battle back to the bargaining table and on a path toward salvaging a piece of what was supposed to be the 2012-13 regular season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly resumed negotiations in person with top officials of the players' union on Saturday in New York City after Beckenbaugh was able to get the parties back on track following 12 hours of meetings with each group on Friday and more sessions early Saturday morning.

Daly, in an e-mail to the Register, wouldn't delve into specifics in terms of the amount of progress occurring in the latest round of discussions but acknowledged Beckenbaugh's impact in getting everyone back in the same room.

"Obviously Scot has been helpful to the process and in helping construct a framework where progress can be made," Daly said. "Parties are still working hard. That has to be a positive."

The presence of a deadline to potentially salvage a lockout-shortened NHL season has spurred the league and the players' union into trading offers and engaging in real negotiations on the New Year's Day holiday but there is still no labor deal in sight.

A day after Gary Bettman confirmed that a new collective bargaining agreement has to be reached by Jan. 11 in order to have a 48-game season, the NHL's commissioner and lead negotiator gave what he and union chief Donald Fehr called a "comprehensive response" to the players' counterproposal of the league's latest offer during a short meeting Tuesday night.

Bettman provided few details of the league's reaction with reporters following the 30-minute session at the league's New York City offices but indicated that the it was willing to move further toward the players on some key issues and remain firm in its stance on others.

"In our response, there were certain things that the players' association asked for that we agreed to," Bettman said. "There were some things that we moved in their direction and there were other things that we said no. But that's part of the process."

Time is ticking down toward Jan. 19, the date in which Bettman wants a truncated season to begin. It means owners and players will have about 10 more days to settle their labor dispute and allow time for players to return to their teams and conduct abbreviated training camps.

The NHL and NHL Players' Association appear to be on the path toward resuming formal negotiations after the two sides held multiple informational sessions Saturday to discuss the league's newest labor proposal.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told the Register that the sides will have communicate again Sunday morning in an informational sense but added that no collective bargaining sessions have been scheduled.

Talks between the league and players' union went dormant two weeks ago after negotiations with federal mediators failed to close the gap that is keeping the two from a labor agreement that will end the lockout, now 105 days old.

But a new offer from the NHL on Thursday that included some movement in the players' direction on contract demands has sparked discussion. If all goes well, it is likely that face-to-face sessions could resume Sunday evening or Monday morning.

The union is not commenting on the owners' proposal and Daly on Saturday wouldn't speculate on where the talks could go after its offer.

Talks broke off again between the NHL and the players' association in spectacular fashion on Thursday with league owners rejecting the union's latest proposal while pulling its offer off the table.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said that owners were "beside themselves" after what they considered was a tepid response to their latest attempt at ending a lockout that is now 82 days old and has wiped 422 games from the schedule.

Owners wanted a 10-year collective bargaining agreement -- with a mutual option after eight years -- and were willing to offer $100 million more in deferred "make whole" payments to players in order to get a deal done Wednesday night.

“The union's response was shockingly silent, so to speak, in terms of their reaction,” an angry Bettman told reporters at a New York City hotel, adding that he had never seen some of the owners so emotional.

Union head Donald Fehr said he received word of the owners' rejection to their offer by voicemail and was told that there was no need to hold more talks on Friday. Players and owners, without Bettman and Fehr at the table, had appeared to make progress during a marathon session on Tuesday.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman's deadline for a new collective bargaining agreement to conduct an 82-game season quietly came and went Thursday without any change in the league's labor stalemate with the players.

Upon making its proposal for a 50-50 split of league revenues, Bettman set a deadline for new deal that would end the six-week long lockout and allow for a full season to start Nov. 2.

The NHL Players' Association responded with three counteroffers that the league roundly rejected in a matter of minutes. The two sides did not meet Thursday and haven't done so since the ill-fated discussions.

It now means that a shortened season is at least in the works, if there is one at all.

“As of tonight, I think we have lost the opportunity for a full 82-game season,” Bill Daly, the league's deputy commissioner, said in an e-mail to the Register.

The NHL soundly rejected all counteroffers made from the players' union to its latest proposal, muting optimism for a prompt agreement to end the lockout and preserve an 82-game regular season.

After an hour-long session with the NHLPA's top negotiators on Thursday in Toronto, league commissioner Gary Bettman said he was "to say the least, thoroughly disappointed" with three responses to their 50-50 offer to split revenues and referred to them as a "step backward."

"None of the three variations of player share that they gave us even began to approach 50-50, either at all or for some long period of time," Bettman said told reporters outside the union's offices. "It's clear we're not speaking the same language."

NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr said that it made three offers that moved toward an even split of league revenues, which soared to a record $3.3 billion last season. All of the proposals were five years in length as opposed to the league's six-year offer that contain an option for a seventh year.

Two of them would have given the players a fixed amount of revenue based off future growth while the third was a 50-50 share across the board as long as owners honored all player contracts that were agreed to in the last collective bargaining agreement, which expired Sept. 15.

The National Hockey League on Tuesday offered its players a new proposal that guarantees an even split of league revenues while honoring existing contracts in an attempt to end the lockout and salvage an 82-game season.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced the proposal outside the NHL Players' Association offices in Toronto. Bettman told reporters that an entire season can played beginning on Nov. 2 if the players accept this latest offer from the owners.

Bettman said "we believe that this was a fair offer for a long-term deal" and hopes that it "gets a positive reaction" while adding that a prompt accord on a new collective bargaining agreement would allow for a week-long training camp before games could be played.

A full slate of games, he said, could be achieved by having each team play one additional game every five weeks.

"So we have about nine or 10 days to get this all put to bed, signed, sealed and delivered, in order for this offer to be effective and for us to move forward," Bettman added. "We hope that this effort that we've undertaken today would be successful because we know how difficult this all has been for everybody associated with the game, particularly our fans."

The lead negotiators from the NHL and its players' association are back together in New York City for scheduled sessions Wednesday and Thursday in their latest attempt to close the wide gap that separates the two toward a new collective bargaining agreement.

The deep divide over how they're going to share a record $3.3 billion in league revenue last season and other fundamental issues such as free agency, salary arbitration and player contracts has so far resulted in the cancellation of 82 regular-season games over the first two weeks of the 2012-13 NHL schedule.

Is there any end in sight to the lockout, the third in the league's history? Bill Daly, the NHL's deputy commissioner, insists that he hopes so as he estimated that at least $230 million of revenue has been lost due to the canceled games and the wiping out of the entire preseason.

"What I can say is obviously we lost about $90 million with losing the preseason," Daly said in an interview with the Register. "I would say with the cancellation of the first two weeks of the regular season, we're probably in jeopardy of losing about another $140 million.

"So you're talking about 230, 240 to this point that's in jeopardy. That's 240 that we both lose. It's not just the league that's losing that money. The players are sharing on some basis in that. Some subtatntial basis. Whether that's 57 percent, or whether that's 50 percent or whether that's 47 percent. It's some basis and it's a signficiant basis.

There are many important steps left to be taken toward a new collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the players' union but it is patently clear that either side is leaving it to the other to make the next one.

Talks are expected to resume on Wednesday and Thursday but what doesn't appear to be on the table is the major stumbling block -- how the players and owners are going to divide up hockey-related revenues that soared to $3.3 billion last season.

Numbers have been tossed out and proposals have offered and tossed aside but this is the fight in the simplest of terms. The owners want a greater share of the revenues and they want it now while the players are willing to take a lower percentage toward future earnings but don't want their current salaries touched.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly (pictured at left) said there isn't a specific agenda for the latest negotiation sessions but added that "I don't expect economic or system issues to be discussed at this point."

"As we have said repeatedly, we are waiting to hear from the [players' association] on those issues," Daly continued in an e-mail to the Register. "They have already heard from us."